Sites

We are actively researching lynching sites* and will be updating this map as we go forward with locations and material related to each confirmed lynching event. Most lynching site locations are only approximately known so the markers on the map are not exact and are meant for a general sense only. The exceptions are the People's Grocery Lynchings and the Ell Persons lynching.

*While not a perfect definition, the 1940 NAACP definition of lynching is the one that most activists used after 1940 and that most modern researchers use: “There must be legal evidence that a person has been killed, and that he met his death illegally at the hands of a group acting under the pretext of service to justice, race, or tradition.” (Group is generally taken to mean 3 or more people.) More about the definition of lynching.